Devices for simulating on dry land the control movements and overall motions and effects experienced and required in downhill snow skiing are known. They range from systems in which actual skis are used on special carpets driven continuously up a slope, at one extreme, to devices akin to roller skates separately bound to the feet of a user, at an opposite extreme. The former are large and costly installations, often found in large sporting goods stores and amusement parks, to which a user must go to use them, frequently as a member of a crowd and at substantial cost. The latter devices have the benefit of being useful to a user at a time and place more controllable by the user and of being relatively inexpensive and more conveniently owned by the user. However, the latter devices heretofore available to skiers and other interested persons have only roughly simulated true downhill skiing control motions and effects, and in some instances have been cumbersome to use or complex in their arrangements.
For example, in the latter category of devices, it is known to provide a pair of devices, each having a fact-receiving boot or boot mounting arrangements, in which endless tracks similar to tank treads are movably mounted. Such devices are usable on grassy slopes, such as ski slopes, and also on paved streets or roads. They only roughly simulate true skiing control and effect motions, and they are complex and relatively prone to malfunction. Also, as shown below, it has been proposed to provide arrangements in which a pair of wheels are mounted to the opposite ends of an elongate frame (one wheel in front and one wheel in the rear) by deformable elastomeric structures associated directly with the wheel axis. In these devices a boot is carried at the mid-length of the frame. When used in pairs on the feet of a user, these two-wheeled devices better respond to the kinds of motions used in downhill skiing for controlling direction of movement, and so better simulate downhill skiing. However, they are subject to the deficiencies noted below.
Thus, a need exits for simple, reliable, rugged and relatively safe devices which can be used on paved sloping surfaces, which are inexpensive, compact and portable, and which accurately and effectively respond to the kinds of body motions used to control downhill skis to produce the motions and effects actually encountered in downhill skiing activities.